CCC's sports manager, Piotr Wadecki, told Poland's public broadcaster that a world-class Polish team has its sights set on fielding the very best Polish riders, which includes Kwiatkowski.

While 28-year-old Kwiatkowski has a contract with Sky to keep him there until the end of the 2020 season, if Dave Brailsford's team fails to find a new sponsor by July – according to Brailsoford's own deadline – then Kwiatkowski and the others will be free to start looking elsewhere, and CCC would be an obvious destination.

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The 2014 road race world champion has been with Team Sky since 2016, and his wins while at the British WorldTour outfit have included Milan-San Remo, Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico.

"Whether Team Sky continue or not is irrelevant," Wadecki said. "Trying to get Michal on the team has been our priority from the beginning, but we know that he has a two-year contract.

"We would like the CCC team to be Polish not only thanks to the sponsor, but also through having leaders coming from our country," he said, while admitting that the team had not talked to Kwiatkowski about the possibility of him joining.